Can this season get any worse for Rafa and his hapless side? Prefixing ‘League’ with the word ‘Europa’ rather than ‘Champions’ looks pretty close to rock bottom for a club with such lofty ambitions but any more injury setbacks for Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres could see the downward spiral continue. And it’s Everton up next.

Andy Murray and the ATP World TOur Finals have been a massive hit

SERVE US A WINNER

Men’s tennis

Epic matches, shock defeats and some sublime tennis have been the order of the day this week in South-East London where the O2 has been packed to the rafters with 20,000-ish fans every session for the World Tour Finals. The nation that goes tennis-mad for two weeks every summer during Wimbledon has shown there is a huge appetite for the sport all year round. Now you would think that might just mean we could produce more than one good male player at a time.

Martin Johnson says criticism of his tenure has gone too far

JOHNNO’S RUGGERED

Martin Johnson

Lambasted whether they win or lose, the England coach has got to that awful moment which Gordon Brown may recognise only too well – the situation looks so hopeless, people have started to feel sorry for you. Johnno is in severe danger of turning his rugby legacy of inspirational leader, rugby titan and World Cup winner into the image of a rather pitiful figure, sitting in the stands looking angry and helpless.

Wallace and Gromit visit Wembley to present Bristol’s bid as a 2018 host city

SWEET FA OF A BID

England’s World Cup bid

We’re the home of football, have the best stadiums, the most popular league, decent infrastructure and, most importantly to those nice chaps at Fifa, the ability to generate the most money from the game. So it takes quite some doing to turn a bid for the 2018 World Cup into something approaching a farce, where egos and internal power struggles seem more important than actually winning the right to stage the greatest football event on earth. Thanks for that, free designer handbags all round.

THEY SAID IT…

‘You have to take a bit of distance with the immediate mathematic impression’

- Or, as Professor Arsene Wenger might have put it when looking at his Arsenal side’s season so far, ‘we’ve got a game in hand’.